The settlement below sat peaceful as could be, its residents sleeping soundly, protected by a dozen MK turrets. "Did you find the generator yet?" Thorne whispered, caressing my arm with the back of her hand causing me to jump from the sudden touch. I took my gaze away from my scope to give her a withering glare before returning to my work, but not before I caught her rolling her emerald green eyes.
"Hurry the fuck up already!" Gavin hissed from over my shoulder.
"If you keep bothering me, I'll never find it." I muttered between half closed lips.
Running with a band of raiders was not how I imagined my life would turn out. They called themselves the Nightstalkers. Their leader, Thorne, was a complete psycho. She wasn't one of those 'fighting to survive' kind of people. Thorne wanted her victims to suffer, she wouldn't be satisfied otherwise. Her lapdog was Gavin. A big, dumb brawler type with a head as shiny as a cue ball and a unibrow that looked like a caterpillar wiggling across his face. It was about a year or two ago that I joined up with them. I wasn't a bloodthirsty chem addict and not much of a fighter for that matter, but they kept me around for my decent sniper ability. Usually, I just took out tough looking targets from a distance before the rest of the gang headed in. I had become a fast favorite of Thorne. Any time she headed out , she wanted me with her. She had been dropping a lot of not so subtle hints that she wanted more from me the than just my abilities with a rifle. When it came to Thorne, there was no refusing her if you valued your life.
The dimly lit lamps in the settlement gave off just enough light for me to see. The generator itself was probably inside one of the shacks, and it wasn't likely that I'd be able to do enough damage to break it down. It didn't matter, the pylon connecting the power to all the turrets was my real target anyway. I spotted it behind a makeshift wooden bridge. I held my breath as I took careful aim at the power line then pulled the trigger. The ensuing gunshot echoed like thunder. As it did, the gang leapt up and rushed the settlement. I stayed behind.
The screams began almost immediately, followed by heavy gunfire. I closed my eyes shut tightly, but my imagination gave me no peace. The fact that I couldn't fight wasn't the only reason I didn't join in on the carnage. I couldn't slaughter innocent people like that. Sure, I'd killed before, I wasn't a saint, but I also wasn't in the habit of gunning down fleeing targets. Eventually, the shooting subsided. I dared to peek through my scope to see the damage. At least a dozen bloodied forms laid motionless on the ground. Thorne and Gavin were standing in the midst of it all, their eyes looking my way. I stood, grabbing my rifle and slinging it over my shoulder before heading down into the settlement. "This was a cakewalk." Thorne gloated as I approached. "Kind of disappointing they didn't put up a real fight." I didn't respond, I was too busy staring at the lifeless body at Thorne's feet. It was a young man, probably in his early twenties, with light blonde hair that was matted with his own blood. There was a bullet hole right between his eyes. "Helllooooo, Raven?"
"Huh?" I awoke from my stupor.
"Stop being fuckin weird and help me find supplies." She ordered as she pushed me aside to leap into Gavin's awaiting arms. Gavin sneered at me before turning away to join the rest of the gang. How the two them could appear so cheery in the midst of all the corpses was beyond me.
I spotted a small shack the opposite direction of the crowd and headed that way. Inside was a dimly lit room with two beds set in either corner. In the center was a wooden dresser with a small, rectangular box on top. The contents of the dresser consisted of varies items of clothing, nothing of importance. I flipped open the lid of the box to find a decently sized stash of caps, likely the homeowner's life savings. It was odd that they'd leave a small fortune right out in the open, but I guess they had a lot of faith in their neighbors. In any case, they wouldn't be needing it now. I swiped up the box and continued my search. The rest of the home was pretty barren. There was a table near the entrance with an assortment of barely legible books stacked atop it. On the floor next to one of the legs was an old brown teddy bear. As I reached down to pick it up, I heard a distinct shuffling sound. I spun around quickly, but the room was completely empty. Then, out of the corner of my vision I spotted a pair of big blue eyes looking at me from beneath one of the beds, the eyes of a child. I only saw him for an instant before a pair of hands appeared and pulled him back into the shadows. My eyes widened. I could have called the gangs attention to them. I know what Thorne would have wanted me to do in such a situation, but she wasn't here. Slowly, I moved towards the bed. These people had lost enough tonight, I wasn't going to cause them more pain. After setting the box of caps down at the foot of the bed, I walked out of the shack.
"Did you find anything?" Thorne asked as I reappeared outside.
"Nothing." I replied, shaking my head. Thorne scrutinized my face, but she didn't question me further.
"Whatever. We found a few supplies and some caps. Everyone else is heading back, you're coming with me." I nodded in understanding, knowing exactly where we were going.
Diamond city: the great green jewel. We made trips there fairly regularly after hitting settlements. If the people there only knew the scum they were letting in. Thorne strutted through the city like she owned it, tossing her chocolatey brown hair over her shoulder flirtatiously as men drooled over her. It didn't bother me one bit. The more people looking at her, the less looking at me. My straight hair, black as my namesake, covered most of my face. It's not that I thought I was ugly, I just hated the idea that people could be looking at me. Perhaps it was because of all the people I had spied on down my scope without them having a clue.
Thorne stopped in front of the barber shop and turned to me. "You should get a haircut," she said, grabbing a handful of my hair and holding it up in the air, "something short. It'd be sexy." She teased, winking at me. I shook my head. That was definitely not going to happen.
"Maybe you should cut yours." I countered. She looked thoughtful for a moment.
"I'll have to meditate on it." I rolled my eyes at that response. Thorne wasn't exactly deep.
I followed her to the Chem-I-Care, a usual stop for us. Solomon was in the middle of a conversation with a man decked out in full combat armor. He had an impressive looking modded rifle across his back.
"Yea, man. Just let me know when you get those plants." Solomon droned, giving the man a lazy smile. Before he had a chance to reply, Thorne shoved her way through to stand right in front of Solomon.
"My favorite drug dealer. My order ready?" She side eyed the man in armor, who looked at her with irritation written all over his face.
"Course I do, Thorne. You know I've got you." Solomon replied, turning around to rummage through his supplies. He pulled out a large sack of chems and handed it over to Thorne, who in turn gave him a hefty sum of caps. With our business concluded, Thorne set her sights back on the man in combat armor.
"What are you supposed to be? A gunner or something?" She questioned, curling her hair around her finger. The man glared are her distastefully, crossing his arms and looking her up and down.
"What are you supposed to be? A junkie?" I could see Thorne's displeasure immediately. Her lip curled back into a snarl.
"Let me catch you outside these walls, pretty boy, and you'll change your tone real fast." Before this got too out of hand, I needed to step in. I wasn't looking to get shot today. I put my hand on Thorne's shoulder.
"Let's just go, we got what we came for." Thorne looked back at me with a disapproving stare but she knew I was right. She couldn't afford to risk being kicked out of the city permanently. Not with the level of chem addiction she suffered from. Solomon was her only reliable source to keep herself and the gang under control. Although highly agitated, Thorne backed down. She latched onto my arm and yanked me violently away. He might have won that round, but I shuddered to think of what would happen if he came face to face with the Nightstalkers in the wasteland. They weren't in the habit of playing fair.
"I hope you brought a tent." Thorne said in a hushed whisper as we exited the city, "we aren't leaving until he has a bullet in his skull." My skin turned to ice. It wasn't unlike Thorne to overreact to things, but it still caught me off guard.
"What do you mean?" I dared to ask as Thorne examined the decrepit buildings all around us.
"I mean," she explained, "we're going to hide up there," she pointed to one of the windows on a high story building down the road from Diamond city's entrance, "and when that guy comes out, you're going to shoot him." My jaw dropped. I had killed many people in the past, but I always tried to justify it. I was just trying to survive, and they had what I needed to do so. Killing a man just because Thorne deemed he needed to die? I couldn't get behind that. Outright refusing her would just wind up in my own demise, I knew that.
"Who knows how long he'll be in there, we could be waiting for days." I said, attempting to appeal to her sense of rationality. Thorne may have been a lot of things, but she wasn't stupid.
"I'm a very patient person." She insisted.
That was that, it seemed. We made our way carefully through the ancient structure. The building was practically a heap of rubble, every step we took on the decomposing wooden floorboards moaned as if it were alive. Any sudden movement could bring the whole thing down. I didn't relish the idea of sitting in it for who knows how long. Thorne led the way up a flight of stairs and down a dusty old hallway. From what I could tell, the place was picked absolutely clean. Thorne didn't bother searching the many rooms filling the place, she just went straight for the room she had pointed out from below and pushed open the door with a loud creak. The room looked like it had been used by chem addicts many years prior. Empty jet inhalers and needles littered the floor around a crusty green sleeping bag. Across from us was the window. Thorne looked at me expectantly. "Well? Go on, do your thing." With great trepidation, I obeyed. I slung my rifle off my shoulder and set up. From this vantage point, I could see the entrance perfectly. If he came out, I would spot him for sure.
The hours dragged by as the sun rose higher into the sky. My body was dripping from sweat, not only from the heat, but from the anxiety over what I was expected to do. Thorne had not taken her own eyes away from the entrance. "I bet Gavin would look sexy in that combat armor. Don't you think?" She asked. I grimaced. Gavin was probably the furthest thing from sexy.
"He isn't my type." I muttered, to which Thorne giggled like a giddy child.
"What is your type, then? You never show interest in anyone."
"I just don't care about that stuff." I replied, starting to get a little annoyed. There were more important things to worried about in this world than getting laid, like trying to survive. Thorne's laughter continued.
"I bet I could change your mind." She moved behind me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I could feel her hot breath on my neck, sending an unpleasant shiver down my spine. Thore was a beautiful woman, but I would never be able to look passed the fact that she was completely crazy.
"What about Gavin?" I reminded her, trying whatever I could think of to get out of the situation.
"He could always join us." She purred, dragging her fingertips across my chest, "we could-" before she finished speaking, the man in the combat armor emerged from the city. My breath caught in my chest, my trigger finger trembling, "finally," she hissed, her mood changing on an instant. She removed herself from me. "Kill him. Now." I took careful aim at his head. Then, as if he knew I was there, he turned his head to look straight at the window.
"H-He sees me." I stammered, my entire body freezing. There was no way he could spot me so quickly, this area was littered with so many buildings. Yet there he was. Through my zoomed in scope, I could see his steely grey eyes locked, impossibly so, on me.
"Who fuckin' cares, shoot him!" Thorne demanded furiously, but her voice sounded so far off from me, I hardly heard her. Our stare down continued. He made no move for his weapon, he didn't try to run, he just stood there. It would have been easier to take the shot had he done so, but I think he knew that. "I gave you an order! Do it now, Raven!" I couldn't. My finger relaxed off the trigger as I lowered my gun. I gasped for air, not realizing that I'd been holding my breath.
"I can't do it." I whispered. I dared to meet her icy glare. She greeted my gesture with a stinging slap. My cheek burned from the impact.
"You're pathetic." Thorne spat. Apparently, the slap wasn't enough to sate her. Balling up her hand into a tight fist, she drove it hard into my abdomen. I lurched backwards, crying out in agony. I swear I could feel one of my lower ribs cracking from the impact. Thorne grabbed a fistful of hair and forced me to look at her. "The next time I tell you to do something, don't fucking think. Just do it." I didn't have any choice but to agree, unless I wanted to be beaten to death. It was in that moment that I realized I was not meant for this life. It was the second time in a day that I had been too weak to do what needed to be done. If I continued down this path, I'd be dead sooner rather than later. The kind of strength it had to be a raider, I didn't possess. I needed to get as far away from the Nightstalkers as possible. The only trouble was figuring out how.